Books Blog : terrorismhttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/tags/terrorism/default.aspxTags: terrorismenCommunityServer 2008 SP1 (Build: 30619.63)Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever OK?: A Human Rights Perspectivehttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2009/09/11/torture-does-it-make-us-safer-is-it-ever-ok-a-human-rights-perspective.aspxFri, 11 Sep 2009 21:41:00 GMT9a7b961d-7882-4302-b701-732ca0e566f2:1845Bufkinite@evpl2http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=1845http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2009/09/11/torture-does-it-make-us-safer-is-it-ever-ok-a-human-rights-perspective.aspx#comments<p><img height="129" width="100" alt="Book jacket art" src="http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=III21&amp;Password=BT0005&amp;Return=1&amp;Type=L&amp;Value=156584971X" style="float:left;" />While I find it appalling on so many levels that we even <i>need</i>&nbsp;a such a book as this in the 21st Century US, I&#39;m glad that I had the chance to read this. &nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://evans.evpl.org/search/t?SEARCH=Torture:%20does%20it%20make%20us">Torture</a> is divided into two sections, the first being about international torture - it&#39;s history, putative usefulness, the exporting of torture from one country to another, the long-term effects of torture on its victims and perpetrators, and negotiating with torturers - and the second being about torture in the United States - including essays on practices banned by the State Department (but nevertheless recently authorized by the Department of Defense), command responsibility for torture, and torture in US prisons.</p>
<p>A particularly moving chapter, for me, was the one on the need to respect the Geneva Conventions (dismissed by former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as &quot;quaint&quot;) written by Senator John McCain, himself a victim of torture during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>While not easy to read, the book clearly answers both rhetorical questions in the title with a resounding &quot;NO!&quot; and provides factual information and ammunition to those wanting to reclaim for the United States the moral high ground in the treatment of dissidents, prisoners of war, and other &quot;enemies of the state.&quot;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://evpl.org/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1845" width="1" height="1">reviewsbooksterrorismwarhuman rightstorture"The Garden of Last Days" Andre Dubus IIIhttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2008/08/26/the-garden-of-last-days-by-andre-dubus-iii.aspxTue, 26 Aug 2008 20:49:00 GMT9a7b961d-7882-4302-b701-732ca0e566f2:285MediaPhile@evpl0http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=285http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2008/08/26/the-garden-of-last-days-by-andre-dubus-iii.aspx#comments<p><a target="_self" href="http://evans.evpl.org/search/tgarden+of+last+days+/tgarden+of+last+days/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&amp;FF=tgarden+of+last+days+a+novel&amp;2%2C2%2C/indexsort=r" title="Garden of Last Days"><img width="99" src="http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=III21&amp;Password=BT0005&amp;Return=T&amp;Type=S&amp;Value=9780393041651&amp;erroroverride=1&amp;" alt="garden of last days" height="152" style="float:left;" /></a>The author of the award-winning and best-selling <a target="_self" href="http://172.16.10.20/search/thouse+of+sand+and+fog/thouse+of+sand+and+fog/1%2C6%2C8%2CB/frameset&amp;FF=thouse+of+sand+and+fog&amp;2%2C%2C2/indexsort=-" title="House of Sand and Fog">&quot;House of Sand and Fog&quot;</a>&nbsp;returns after a long hiatus with this fictional recreation of the days leading up to 9/11.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Building on&nbsp;news reports that the men who would later take over the planes on that fatal day spent time in southern Florida strip joints in the last weeks of their lives, the author sets the first half of his novel in -- yes -- a strip joint.</p>
<p>There we meet a young stripper/mother trying to make a quick buck and retire to a decent way of life, an angry construction worker with a bad drinking problem, and a young terrorist hoping&nbsp;to figure everything out&nbsp;before he dies.</p>
<p>This is a sobering&nbsp;tale that, like&nbsp;&quot;House of Sand and Fog,&quot;&nbsp;explores both the challenges that&nbsp;people from different cultures face in&nbsp;understanding each other and the irrational and explosive anger that will, if unchecked,&nbsp;build to unanticipated climaxes.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://evpl.org/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=285" width="1" height="1">reviewsterrorismstrippersalcoholism9/11